Gregory G. Dess

Entrepreneurial strategy making and firm performance: tests of contingency and configurational models

This field study explores the nature of entrepreneurial strategy making (ESM) and its relationship with strategy, environment and performance. In the first phase, we assess the independence of entrepreneurially oriented strategy-making processes through factor analysis. The second phase, using moderated hierarchical regression anlaysis, investigates the relative predictive power of two approaches for exploring the ESM–performance relationship: contingency and configuration. Findings from a sample of 32 firms competing in a wide variety of industries indicate that configurational approaches that align ESM, strategy, and environment have greater predictive power than contingency approaches. However, not all high performing configurations are consistent with normative theory. Thus, alternate theories linking entrepreneurial strategy making to competitive advantage should be developed and tested.

Enhancing Entrepreneurial Orientation Research: Operationalizing and Measuring a Key Strategic Decision Making Process

As a means to enhance prescriptive theory on a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation, this paper addresses the strengths and weaknesses of three approaches to measurement: managerial perceptions, firm behaviors, and resource allocations. We examine a set of recent studies employing these approaches, propose important contingencies regarding their use, and suggest that measurement accuracy can be improved by using a triangulation of methods. The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical, resource availability, and interpretability considerations in measurement selection.

Emerging Issues in Corporate Entrepreneurship

Research on corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has grown rapidly over the past decade. In this article, we identify four major issues scholars can pursue to further our understanding about CE. The issues we explore include various forms of CE (e.g., sustained regeneration, domain redefinition) and their implications for organizational learning; the role of leadership and social exchange in the CE process; and, key research opportunities relevant to CE in an international context. To address the latter issue, we propose a typology that separates content from process-related studies and new ventures vs. established companies. We close with a reassessment of the outcomes in CE research, which becomes particularly salient with the increasing importance of social, human, and intellectual capital in creating competitive advantages and wealth in today’s knowledge economy. Throughout the article, we use the organizational learning theory as a means of integrating our discussion and highlighting the potential contributions of CE to knowledge creation and effective exploitation.

Industry Effects and Strategic Management Research

Adequate controls for potential industry effects have not been used in many strategic management studies. Similarly, strategy researchers have not consistently used adequate conceptualizations of industrial environments in the design of their empirical work. Findings derived from research with such design and execution deficiencies may result in misleading interpretations. Forty of the most frequently cited empirical strategy studies published between 1980 and 1988 are identified and analyzed. The results of this analysis indicate how researchers have approached the phenomenon of industry effects in the conduct of strategic management research. Methods for controlling for industry effects and the implications of the arguments presented herein for future research and theory building are discussed in thefinal sections of the paper.

Linking Corporate Entrepreneurship to Strategy, Structure, and Process: Suggested Research Directions

We endeavor to propose counterintuitive ideas or, alternatively, deny the “assumption bases” (Davis, 1971) of ETPs readers. Major sections of the paper suggest research questions concerning strategies, structures, and processes in the context of corporate entrepreneurship (CE). The issues we propose include: Are cost leadership strategies and corporate entrepreneurship inherently at odds? Are contemporary organizational forms always more compatible with CE than traditional structures? and; How can the normative guidance that permeates the popular press on entrepreneurial processes lead managers astray? Corporate entrepreneurships unique relationship to strategy, structure, and process issues and future research questions are discussed.

Inherent Limitations of Demographic Proxies in Top Management Team Heterogeneity Research

Top management team (TMT) heterogeneity—performance research using demographic indicators has contributed to strategic management by showing that top managers do indeed “matter” to firm outcomes. We argue, however, that limitations inherent in demographics-based TMT studies preclude their use in specifying how top managers influence their firms. This is an elemental problem because questions of how top managers can and should influence their firms are central to strategic management. Demographics-based TMT heterogeneity studies are limited by intrinsic trade-offs, which sacrifice: construct validity for measurement reliability; explanation for prediction; and prescription for description. We suggest “next steps” for improving the usefulness of future TMT studies (i.e., addressing the “how” question) by: (1) incorporating more substantive heterogeneity constructs, such as within-TMT power distributions, psychographic variances, and judgment differences; and (2) integrating qualitative research with the quantitative as a base for developing research questions that are more informed, salient, and interesting. We urge researchers to eschew demographic proxies, and instead direct their efforts toward more difficult, but potentially more rewarding, TMT issues.

Conducting and Integrating Strategy Research at the International, Corporate, and Business Levels: Issues and Directions

This paper identifies important research issues at the international, corporate, and business levels of strategy research. In addition, research questions that require integration across multiple levels of strategy as well as the incorporation of both the content and process dimensions of strategy are addressed.

Configuration Research in Strategic Management: Key Issues and Suggestions

This paper discusses major theoretical and methodological issues that strategic management researchers must consider when developing and testing configuration theories. The theoretical issues include: (1) number of domains, (2) causality, and (3) temporal stability. The methodological issues are: (I) specification of key constructs, (2) effects of data aggregation, (3) the choice of unit of analysis, and (4) the appropriateness of research methodologies. Greater attention to these issues should result in more accurate findings and more meaningful interpretations.

Simplicity as a Strategy-Making Process: The Effects of Stage of Organizational Development and Environment on Performance

This field study investigated the importance of simplicity as a strategy-making process. Consistent with our hypotheses, use of a simplistic strategy-making process was found to be positively assoc...

The Role of Middle Management in the Strategy Process: Group Affiliation, Structural Holes, and Tertius Iungens

This study explores the relationship between eight distinct brokerage roles of middle managers and their involvement in achieving different strategic goals. The authors argue that each role contributes to different aspects of middle managers’ strategic goals and that some roles are more likely to realize brokerage advantages than others. They further suggest that bridging structural holes may not be an optimal strategy in all situations. Important implications of their model are discussed and several future research directions are proposed.